The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1887-05-13

right, which represents the Signing OF the
Declaration of Independence, was dubbed
by John Randolph, of Roanoke, the "Shin
Picture" on account of the row of statesmen
in knee breeches sitting in front of the
speaker, and each with one leg thrown over
the knee of the other. After the picture was
completed this feature of it was so much
laughed at that the artist was directed to
change it, and he did it by painting tables
in front of some of the statesmen to conceal
their legs. Overhead, i'm this dome, is
Brumidi's freseo. 1t represents Washington
on the right and victory on the left, with
thirteen female figures representing the thir-
teen states, and the whole making up a series
of wonderful pictures. Brumidi got for this
$4,000, and he put in his own work at $780,
600 He is said TO have been a free liver and
the tradition here is that the faces OF the
beautiful women which look down into the
rotunda from the ceiling above were modelled
after those Of certain women of questionable
reputation with whom the artist was ac-
quainted. **a
Perhaps the most laughed at statue at the
Capitol is that of George Washington which,
naked to the waist, sits on great marble
chair in front of the entrance portico. This
statue was begun by Horatio Greenough, in
1882. The original idea was to make it a
pedestrian statue and to put it in the rotunda.
The price was to be 5000, and Greenough
began the work in Florence He got con-
gress to increase the price to $50, 900, and the
statue was completed, think, in 1910. It
made a great fuss in this country at. that
time, and the question was how to get There.
By the direction of congress the secretary of
the navy ordered the commander of the
Mediterranean squadron to put it on board Of
one OF his men OF war at Genoa and send it to
Washington. But this was before the days
of much railroading, and the statue weighed
twenty one tons. 1t was big job to carry
it from Florence to Genoa. A ponderous car
was erected for it, and it was hauled by
twenty-five yoke of oxen As it passed
along the Italian peasants took it for an
image of a saint and knelt to it and said their
prayers. 1t was found that the hatchway Of
the man of war was not large enough to ad-
init it, and it then became necessary to
charter merchant vessel.
This vessel delivered it at the Washington
navy yard, and a description Of the new
statue was sent over the country. When the
prudish patriots of the days of 1840 found
that the pedestrian statue which they had
ordered was sitting in chair and that it was
half naked, burst of horror went up, and
Henry A. Wise, of Virginia, declared in a
speech in congress that ''the man does not
live and never did live who ever saw Wash
ington without his shirt" It cost a big sum
of money to get the statue from the navy
yard to the Capitol building, and it was then
found that the doorway was too small by
fourteen inches to admit it. The masonry
was cut away so that it could be taken into
the center of the rotunda, and here fresh
difficulty arose. The floor was too weak to
bear up the twenty-one tons and solid
pedestal had to be erected from the basement
to the floor of the rotunda. After this was
done and the statue was placed under the
dome, it was found that it was too large to
look well, and the next year congress moved
it outside and put shelter over it, 1t has
been moved several times since then and the
shelter has been taken away. One of the
toes has been broken off, and it looks very
cold and stiff when the snow piles up on
George Washingtonis bosom. The statue re-
presents Washington with one hand uplifted,
and Allen G. Thurman used to say that
Washington was pointing toward the patent
office were his relics were kept and mutely
beseeching that his suit of regmentals be
brought to keep away the cold. The statue
is out of place, and though Greenough
thought it was his greatest work, and .once
said he was willing to rest his fame uponit, it
is failure. $50
Clark MfIls mas an equestrian statute Of
Washington on a granite pedestal in Wash
ington circle. This is at the west of the
White House and just at the edge of the en-
trance to Georgetown It is a much better
work than that of the Jackson statue, which
stands on its heels in Lafayette park Mills
got S100, 900 for the two, and it is said that
when he was given the commission to erect
the. Jackson statue he had never seen an
equestrian statue, and the idea was entirely
his own. The position is too strained, how
ever, for thing of this kind, and the day of
the equestrian statue is, it seems to me, pass
ing away. People are beginning to laugh at
the trying to honor man by the bronze
image of his favorite horse, even as visitors
to the White House laugh at President Ar
thurs vanity when they see his portrait,
which represents his shapely form clad in
chinchilla overcoat with velvet collar
We have number of equestrian statues
here. Gen. Thomas and his horse occupy
about $4,000 worth of bronze metal i'm
Thomas circle, and it makes the tax payer
happy when he remembers that the pedestal
on which this horse stands cost $25 5,oO0yand
that the four bronzed lamp posts around the
base cost $1,000 piece. You never hear any
thing of Gen. Greene's statue in the papers,
but it cost $4,000, and it stands in park
northeast of the Capitol surrounded by negro
There is statue of Winfield Scott
near that of Thomas which cost S45 600, and
the horse of which veterinary surgeons will
all 30 1oI
Mcpherson, in bronze, sits upon a horses
back just above the Arlington house, and
this statue is one of the fine ones of the cap
ital ***
Winnie Reams statue of Farragut is
bronze figure of the naval hero, for which
she got $4,000, and there is statue of
Admiral Dupont, opposite Blaine's big man.
sion. which cost several times the amount of q
salary. The statue of Martin
Luther, in front of the Lutheran Memorial
church, is q wonderful piece of life like work
and the 8 1900 pounds of brass which
Abraham Lincoln giving freedom
TO the negro is work of much art. This
statue was at the Centennial. It represents
Lincoln offering emancipation to the negro
slave who. with his shackles broken, kneels
before him with uplifted hands. It cost
p1f sUUU diiu was ptiAA AOA ny VAO SVAA"
tributions Of freedmen. The first contribu-
lion Of $5 was made by Charlotte Scott,
freed woman of Virginia, and these were her
first earnings in freedom. This statue was
dedicated in 1876, and Fred Douglass was the
orator of the occasion g.
**+
The material of many of these statues has
played an important part in history. The
statue of Gen. Scott is made of cannon, which
were captured during the Mexican war; that
Of Farragut, of metal taken from the bronze
propeller Of Farragut's flagship, the Hart
ford, and that of Andrew jackson was cast
from brass cannon and mortars which were
captured during Jacksons campaigns.
Inview of the fuss regarding the selection
Of the orator for the Garfield statue it is in
to look at the ceremony of these
statues of the past. This Jackson statue was
unveiled in 1858, when the Hon. Stephen A.
Douglas delivered the oration; Farragut's
statue was celebrated by speeches by Horace
of Tennessee, and Senator D. W.
Voorhees,, of Indiana. John A. Logan de-
iyered the Grafton at the unveiling Of the
statue Of Gen. Mcpherson, and Secretary OF
State Bayard was the orator at that OF Adj
niral Dupont. 50
There are number OF bronze and marble
busts IN Washington which one never sees
mentioned in the papers. In the library OF
the White House there is o bronze head OF